Editor’s note: This is one in a series of stories Foster’s is writing about candidates in major races in the November elections.

By Michelle Kingston

mkingston@fosters.com

DOVER — David Watters, a Dover resident running for the Strafford County District 4 Senate seat, said his three goals as a state senator are to strengthen education, focus on the environment and balance the budget.“I’m running to bring some common sense and stability back to Concord. I’ve been up there the last couple of years and saw the divisiveness over the social issues,” he said during an editorial board meeting. “We didn’t get the work done that we needed to get the economy moving and to create jobs.”Watters says a priority of his is preparing people for jobs right now by increasing the importance of technical colleges and community colleges.“For me, I think we need to focus on education. That is going to bring the kind of quality and trained work for 21st century jobs.”Watters, a professor at the University of New Hampshire since 1978, said he moved to the area to begin his career in education. His wife is also a professor and he has family throughout New Hampshire.“I’m running for community values,” he said. “We take care of our own. We take care of our children. We take care of our elderly. We make sure that a town like Dover has a beautiful environment. The quality of life here is extraordinary. People love it. They don’t want legislators to mess it up. There are things that we need to do here.”One issue in our state Watters is concerned with is the Great Bay estuary. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to reduce Dover’s nitrogen discharge, which currently operates between 15 milligrams to 20 milligrams per liter, to a limit of 3 milligrams per liter. The coalition did a number of studies and proved it does not need to be below 8 milligrams per liter. To meet this goal, the Great Bay Municipalities, which include Exeter, Newmarket, Rochester, Portsmouth and Dover, would have to make millions of dollars in upgrades to their facilities.“I am 100 percent behind the coalition for the 8 milligrams per liter. I think that is the sweet spot. I worked with legislation last time to say, ‘Look, it is very hard to get below that. We have winter around here,” he said. “If the EPA had a shred of common sense to sign off on the eight and put a program in place as they have in Durham, and are working on in Newmarket to deal with the storm water, we would do a much better job.”Watters said he met with the heads of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services just before the coalition sued them.“I said, ‘Look, it is federal, but you have a role to play as DES because you provide opinions … and what we talked about was a 5-5-5 plan.”This plan, he said, gives the city five years to design, five years to build and then five years to look at the results.“The idea was, you could build to the eight (milligrams per liter), then have five years to learn and then have 15 years to build other processes,” he said. “You could, for not much cost, design that plant, so that if you have to add on to it later on, you would design it to do that, just in case, but you would have the 15 years there to let the science catch up and find other ways, and also have time to develop other plans.”Watters is also concerned with moving forward in regards to the state’s economy and the people of New Hampshire’s future.He said his opponent, Phyllis Woods, wrote that no real woman would ever use contraception. He also said she signed the Cornerstone Pledge.“The Cornerstone Pledge, you can read it. She signed it. It brings back all that business of life beginning at conception. So you can say goodbye to IUD, say goodbye to in vitro, say goodbye to some kind of birth control. It also says parent’s have natural rights over their children,” he said.“Why sign a pledge that brings back everything that tied the House up in knots?” he asked.During the last budget process, he said, certain cuts were made with the Republicans in control, which he did not agree with.“… But I will agree, that by law, we need a balanced budget. I’m a frugal Yankee,” he said. “I do not support income or sales tax. I’m against that because I think that is the New Hampshire way. It is the New Hampshire advantage, too.”He said the bottom line for him is to grow the economy.“I have great faith in New Hampshire businesses to make money. This is an entrepreneurial state,” he said.Watters said this election will solve problems many residents have right now.“I think also this election will get rid of a lot of uncertainty,” he said. “People are waiting. There is a lot of money to be invested. We are going to see some real growth.”